Identity Crisis

It has begun. Nothing good can come from changing your name when you get married. I went to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription during my lunch break yesterday. I called beforehand to give them my new last name because my credit card and license have been changed to my new, and not nearly as cool, "H", last name.

Upon arrival, I had to pronounce my new German last name several times. I also informed them of my previous, and much easier to understand, English last name in case they had it under that. Well, after several minutes of frantic searching and some spelling of my new last name, they could not find my prescription and had to make a new one.

Today at work, the IT department informed me of my new user name, also a result of my legal name change. My user name used to be HOLLAAE - very cool user name and something I have adopted as a nickname for myself. In fact, I get much enjoyment out of saying "HOLLAAA" to people and using it as a signature in e-mails to my friends. My new user name is HINDEAE. I had to pdf something to myself and couldn't log in under either name. And I'm a little ruffled by the fact that HINDEAE sucks as a nickname and isn't serving its purpose as a username.

Moral of the Story: Tell your husband that you are going to change your name and just never do it. If he questions you in the following months of your nuptials, borrow from Monica and tell him you went to the "Ministry of Names" and changed it. Then, maybe five years down the road, he will actually notice that your last name was indeed never changed. At this point, you have established your last name in your career and can justify NOT changing to your married name based on this fact. Depending on your line of work, you can even say that your fan base won't know how to follow you.